It is a bit of a disservice — both to the artist and to viewers — to call the films Luke Fowler makes about musicians “documentaries.” They don’t follow narrative templates or aim for the comprehensiveness we often associate with conventional movies about such subjects. Fowler instead tries to imbue his work with a numinous quality reflective of the subject’s work and aesthetic.

This week, Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan debuts a program showing three such pictures, the longest of them “Electro-Pythagorus: A Portrait of Martin Bartlett” (the film uses the misspelling of the philosopher-mathematician’s name) a short feature about the British-Canadian electronic musician Martin Bartlett. Little known even by the standards of experimental music, Bartlett built his own electronic instruments and often added his voice to the tones they produced; as an academic, he helped bring the study of Indonesian music to Canada.

Fowler’s film is made up of familiar documentary components: archival footage, reminiscences by friends and readings of the subject’s letters. But these are ordered in a way that is less concerned with telling a story, or explaining Bartlett’s life, than with evoking his qualities of erudition, curiosity, enthusiasm, care and sometimes anger. (One of his letters is to the pharmaceutical company then known as Bristol-Myers, complaining about the quality of one of its drugs for treating AIDS; the syndrome claimed Bartlett’s life in 1993.)

Two shorts, also by Fowler, that accompany “Electro-Pythagorus” treat other pioneering artists: Christian Wolff and Sue Tompkins. None of the films are ideal primers on their subjects, but all are specific, tantalizing immersions — which may be better.

Electro-Pythagorus: A Portrait of Martin Bartlett

NYT Critic's Pick

Director

Luke Fowler

Writer

Luke Fowler

Running Time

45 minutes

Genre

Documentary

Movie data powered by IMDb.com

Not rated. Running time: 45 minutes.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C6 of the New York edition with the headline: Electro-Pythagorus: A Portrait of Martin Bartlett. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe